This is excellent, thank you! One thing I would love to see added to this research is the keto effect of just water over those 120 minutes, and THEN the keto effect of adding a tad bit of protein, such as collagen powder (I use the green tub great lakes powder; it dissolves great in coffee). I feel like that might put your test even more into an annals of science, and for us folks who don’t have the finger prick blood testers, it would be fun to know. Also, sugar free sweeteners like splenda (!!) or stevia–do they have any effect? Anyway–great read, exactly what I was looking for when I googled my question.
What and when you eat during the feeding window also depends on when you work out. On days you exercise, carbs are more important than fat. On rest days, fat intake should be higher. Protein consumption should be fairly high every day, though it will vary based on goals, gender, age, body fat and activity levels. Regardless of your specific program, whole, unprocessed foods should make up the majority of your calorie intake. However, when there isn’t time for a meal, a protein shake or meal replacement bar is acceptable (in moderation).
Worried about losing muscle if you fast? Maybe this will put your concerns to rest: a single 24-hour fast increased human growth hormone (HGH) by 2000% in men and 1300% in women.[2] HGH plays an integral role in building muscle. Boosting your levels this high will have huge effect on your physique. Research shows that higher levels of HGH leads to lower levels of body fat, higher lean body mass and improved bone mass.[3]
Forms of intermittent fasting exist in religious practices in various groups across the world.[12] Religious fasting regimens include, but are not limited to, Vrata in Hinduism, Ramadan fasting (Islam), Yom Kippur fasting (Judaism), Orthodox Christian fasting, Fast Sunday (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and Buddhist fasting.[12] Certain religious fasting practices, like Buddhist fasting, only require abstinence from certain foods, while others, like the Jewish fast on Yom Kippur, last for a short period of time and would cause negligible effects on the body.[12]
Following what Greg lays out for us, we should wait a couple of hours and stave off our cup of jolt, kick-starter for at least a couple of hours after getting up. Instead, we should have some hydrating water. That’s a hard one, let’s be truthful. Real hard, especially for coffee lovers, but I suppose there is a reason for this. I think this has something to do with cortisol levels. This really helps when, or if you get hunger pains and then have a cup of wakey juice or two or three or four cups. This almost always alleviates the hunger, so this is why it’s so powerful.

You’ll spike your blood sugar when you eat. If you’re fasting on a high-carb diet and you’ve powered through the cravings and lack of energy from low blood sugar, there’s a good chance you’ll eat a ton of carbs when you feast. You want to eat big meals when you fast to make sure you’re getting enough calories, but all those excess carbs in one go will spike your blood sugar in the opposite direction, from low to high.[14] High blood sugar causes fatigue and lack of focus. That raging hunger will also cause you to binge unnecessarily, and whatever carbs you don’t use will get stored as fat.

Eating all your meals in an 8-hour window (say, eating between noon and 8PM, and fasting the other 16 hours a day) causes significant weight loss without counting calories.[1] While this type of intermittent fasting causes weight loss no matter what people eat, research shows that people who do it in a healthy manner lose twice as much weight (7% vs. 3% of their body weight) as those who fast while still eating junk. So it’s still important to follow a high-performance diet like the Bulletproof Diet while you fast.
Some people believe that IF has worked for them simply because the limited eating window naturally helps them reduce the amount of calories they consume. For instance, instead of eating three meals and two snacks, they might find that they only have time for two meals and one snack. They become more mindful about the kinds of food they consume and tend to stay way from processed carbs, unhealthy fat, and empty calories.

Also, be aware that when you exercise, your body directly burns away glycogen (a form of glucose stored in the muscles). Fasting depletes these stores, which can mean less available energy for the muscles to use when they need it. This can lead to extreme fatigue and decreased performance. The best fasting tips for athletes are to precede each workout with a low-calorie protein shake designed to deliver creatine, BCAAs, beta-alanine, and other amino acids directly to the muscles as they work them, and then to follow each workout with a whey-protein supplement to replenish depleted nutrient stores in order to speed up the recovery process. These workout supplements won’t add much to your overall calorie count, and will help ensure that your intermittent fasting schedule and your workout regimen aren’t getting in each other’s way.

You are probably wondering how there could possibly be a benefit to eating less frequently that goes beyond what you are already getting with a ketogenic diet. Restricting carbs and eating enough fat and protein does come with a plethora of health benefits, but when you add intermittent fasting to your lifestyle you can increase energy and reverse aging by harnessing the power of a nobel prize winning process.

STEP 5: After 24 hours, pour the mixture through the mesh strainer atop another glass container. You’ll have a large pile of coffee grounds mounding in your strainer. Let the batch of grounds sit in the strainer and drip into the container below for several minutes, but don’t press or pat down on the grounds. After several minutes, move the strainer with the grounds to the side.

Intermittent fasting isn't a regimen built around limiting calories (although it's likely that your calorie intake will be restricted naturally since you're going a period of time without eating), but it can promote weight loss in a big way. Fasting gives your metabolism an overhaul. It works on the same principles as a ketogenic diet. By restricting food (and carbohydrates), you'll switch your body from burning glucose for energy to burning stored body fat.
When our cells undergo the process of autophagy, non-essential parts like damaged proteins are recycled and invading microorganisms and toxic compounds are removed. This means that autophagy plays an important role in stopping the aging process, reversing disease, and preventing cancer, but it doesn’t happen all the time. Fasting, protein restriction, and carbohydrate restriction are the three main ways that can initiate different autophagic processes — all of which are not the same. This is part of the reason why a ketogenic diet has so many positive effects, and it also shows you why intermittent fasting is a way to improve your diet even more.
I don’t recommend that you go straight for a 1-2 day fast, but begin by restricting yourself to certain eating windows. Typically people restrict themselves to the hours of 5pm – 11pm. People often refer to their fasting windows by numbers: 19/5 or 21/3, for example, means 19 hours of fasting and 5 hours eating or 21 hours fasting and 3 hours eating, respectively.

Now that you’re properly prepared, it’s time to get started with intermittent fasting keto. In addition to cutting carbs, increasing fat intake and restricting food consumption to a specific window of time each day, you should also be sure to stay hydrated and plan your workout routine around your fasting schedule. While exercising is okay during days that you fast, it’s important to listen to your body and avoid pushing yourself too hard.

Intermittent fasting (specifically the 5:2 diet) became popular in the UK in 2012[14][15][16] after the BBC2 television Horizon documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer.[17] Via sales of best-selling books, it became widely practiced.[18][19] In the United States, intermittent fasting has become a trend among Silicon Valley companies.[20] According to NHS Choices as of 2012, people considering the 5:2 diet should first consult a physician, as fasting can sometimes be unsafe.[18][21] A news item in the Canadian Medical Association Journal expressed concern that promotional material for the diet showed people eating high-calorie food, such as hamburgers and chips, and that this could encourage binge eating since the implication was that "if you fast two days a week, you can devour as much junk as your gullet can swallow during the remaining five days".[22]

I’ll share some of my experiences, now doing heavy strength training for 3 years in a fasted state: For my first “fasted” workout or two after starting an IF protocol, it was very weird to not eat before training. However, after a few sessions, I learned that my body could certainly function (and even thrive) during my training sessions despite not eating a pre-workout meal.